The drought and erosion of the Dust Bowl affected 100 million acres (400,000 km 2) that centered on the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma Panhandle and touched adjacent sections of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. While the term "the Dust Bowl" was originally a reference to the geographical area affected by the dust, today it usually refers to the event itself (the term "Dirty Thirties" is also sometimes used). Geiger happened to be in Boise City, Oklahoma, to witness the " Black Sunday" black blizzards of ApEdward Stanley, the Kansas City news editor of the Associated Press, coined the term "Dust Bowl" while rewriting Geiger's news story. On the plains, they often reduced visibility to three feet (1 m) or less. These choking billows of dust – named "black blizzards" or "black rollers" – traveled cross country, reaching as far as the East Coast and striking such cities as New York City and Washington, D.C. During the drought of the 1930s, the unanchored soil turned to dust, which the prevailing winds blew away in huge clouds that sometimes blackened the sky. The rapid mechanization of farm equipment, especially small gasoline tractors, and widespread use of the combine harvester contributed to farmers' decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland. With insufficient understanding of the ecology of the plains, farmers had conducted extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains during the previous decade this had displaced the native, deep-rooted grasses that normally trapped soil and moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. Geographic characteristics and early history 7 Changes in agriculture and population on the Plains.1 Geographic characteristics and early history.
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